Balanced
I wrote what I thought was a great blog on “Balance” this past Sunday night. I stored it as I normally do on my laptop that I use here at home. The next morning our IT staff could not recover the blog as it appeared to be compromised and would not let us open it. It was disappointing because I was truly excited to share my thoughts with you on Balance but tonight I understand why that blog must have disappeared.
During the time I wrote the original blog post and now, I’ve gained even more insight on what Balance means. I was blessed to have watched the new documentary on Robin Williams which if you have not seen, please go and watch it. You will realize that although an extremely talented individual, Robin was very troubled during his life.
While watching the documentary, I was saddened to hear Chris Black make a remark that “Robin was the light that didn’t know how to turn itself off” and to hear Zach Williams, Robin’s oldest son, say that “some years we would see him for half a year and sometimes hardly at all”.
Lacking this Balance is a prevalent issue in our society today. Look around and you will also notice many great athletes struggling to find Balance in life once their playing days are over. Some have even taken their life because they simply couldn’t find that Balance without the roar of the crowd. No matter what your profession is, we have to be able to “turn the light off” in order to find balance with our families, in our spiritual lives and in our social lives.
Now I really love what I do for a living. Our company has been a blessing to me and it gives me great pleasure to help small business owners realize their dreams by helping them obtain the funding they need to start, sustain and to grow their businesses. However, this documentary particularly resonated with me because I am terrible at having a balanced life and it has carried a heavy cost. Over the years I have missed many events in my children’s lives because I thought I had to be at work and couldn’t afford to be away.
While this topic has been on my mind, I keep seeing the need for Balance being woven into my own life. Last week our company had one of its two monthly meetings we have with our business coach, Joe Martin, who I met while working with Bill Evans at Evans Glass in Nashville. Joe has been and is an integral part of our business and has been instrumental and helpful in guiding me through the toughest 10 months of my personal life. When he comes to our offices, his first 30-45 minutes are spent with me before meeting with our leadership team.
On this visit he introduced me to what he calls his “Base7”. These are the seven areas of life that are important to all of us if we are looking for a Balanced life:
Spiritual
Relationship with Spouse
Relationship with Children
Physical Health
Mental
Financial
Social
As we discussed his “Base7”, he said that utopia is to be doing great in every area, but if we are honest with ourselves, none of us are doing great in every area.
Joe and I agreed that with all I have been through recently, I have made great progress in the Mental category. What really helped me to get back on track mentally, was that I began to read again. Did you know that most successful CEO’s read on average 60 books per year? During a week I was recently on vacation I read 3.5 books. The following week, I finished another 2.5. Reading helps me to balance my thoughts and challenge myself mentally.
Now, what Joe has challenged me to do, is to pick out another of the “Base7” categories and set one goal in that category. After setting the goal, he wants me to put a specific and actionable plan in place in order to achieve my goal in that particular category.
“Base7” is designed to help us find Balance in our lives. I certainly want more balance in my life and I plan to use Joe’s “Base7” to help me get there, because as a small business owner, I will tell you that you owe it to your employees, your customers, and to yourself, to make sure you stay sharp while running your business – to do that you have to be refreshed and yes, Balanced.
